Kentucky Christmas Morning | Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

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Reviews by Furlinator:

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"It's like Christmas in a glass." Yeah if your Christmas was filled with an alcoholic relative that started drinking bourbon and coffee at 7am while you opened your presents. And then promptly passed out before breakfast was served only to wake up before dinner. At which they felt the need to tell you what was wrong with everyone. So yeah, Christmas in a glass. And cookies, tastes like alcoholic Christmas Cookies.

Look: Bottle is adorable with a marinating gingerbread man emerging from a barrel. The beer has the sexiness that exudes from the surrounding perimeter. Pours slick, lingering and with some definite legs.

Taste: Incredible. This is definitely reminiscent of Christmas Morning, but it has a bourbon flavor lingering that gives it a lightly boozy and, almost, cookie-ish flavor to it. Along with the smells noted, the coffee is certainly present while the bourbon adds an attractive texture that makes it almost dessert-like. An incredible variant of the GBS that outdoes most other ones. A definite tie with Apple Brandy GBS (both distant, yet close cousins).

Feel: Syrupy, persistent and lingering. You can taste the coffee thinness that is counterbalanced with a thick and textured dessert flavor that the bourbon yields. Think, gingerbread cookie with bourbon spiked coffee. Delicious and leaves one wanting more.

Overall: Soon to be a world-class off-variant that is well sought after. For those of us lucky to grab this at the first release, this will be sought after for years to come. Keep an eye out.

Appearance - Pours dark brown with some deep auburn highlights. Light tan, quarter-finger width head that dissipates quickly, leaving behind a somewhat barren surface and a thin ring around the edge of the glass. Fair lacing, leaving small spotting and a broken line or two on the glass.

Smell - Gingerbread is the prominent aroma, with lesser notes of chocolate, bourbon and spice. Picking up subtle coffee.

Taste - Follows the nose, with gingerbread and chocolatey goodness being the prominent flavors upfront and throughout. Some bourbon character evoking notes of vanilla, oak and booze come through shortly after that initial burst of sweetness, then some cinnamon and other spices round it out. A hint of well-baked pie crust. Faint trace of coffee that only adds the briefest of roast character underneath. As deep and complex as it is, it ends rather abruptly, leaving lingering notes of milk chocolate, gingerbread, spice and a hint of booze.

Mouthfeel - Full-bodied with low to moderate carbonation. Creamy texture turns a bit slick and slightly dry in the finish, as the booze leaves a bit of warmth in the stomach. Seductive drinkability.

Overall - I'm not so big on milk stouts, but this is one hell of a beer. I'm not even that upset about the lack of coffee coming through despite the promise on the label, though I'm sure it had a fair hand in keeping this brew from being cloyingly sweet. Worthy beer for my 1,500th review. Raising my glass of KCM to 1,500 more!

750 mL bottle. Black body. Smell is 90% gingerbread spices. Remarkably sharp ginger aroma. Some bourbon. Chocolate. Tough to distinguish coffee from the other sharp aromas. Taste has almost as much ginger and cinnamon. Milk chocolate and bourbon. Coffee finally makes an appearance in the back end. Spices are out of control. I'm not opposed to the spices, but in total they're pretty strong. In tiny quantities, it's good. My second pour was rough.

Hardywood has really stepped it up in the past year. The last few releases have been great products, and it feels like they've solved what appeared to be a quality vs quantity issue as they grew and made bigger batches. This beer is a great blend of GBS spices, awesome coffee, and the bourbon. Love it, and I've been hard on Hardywood ratings previously...

A - Poured into a Kate the Great tulip a nice dark brown almost black hue with a super thin blanket that faded to leave thin wisps. Nice legs.

S - Aromas of nice coffee roast, great vanilla and bourbon. The chocolate is decent but there is excellent gingerbread aromas. Just incredible gingerbread smell soaked in bourbon. Really nice malts and chocolate too.

T - Taste is similar to the nose. Nice coffee roast, the bourbon is lightly sweet, the gingerbread is nice and lightly spicy with good ginger notes. The base beer really was complimented by this coffee and bourbon.

M - Mouthfeel is nicely carbonated, creamy, alcohol hidden well.

O - Overall this beer was rather delicious. I love the bourbon, however, I think I enjoyed the apple brandy one a bit better.

This is a great beer and definitely the best variant of GBS ive tried. On tap at KCM and AB GBS release. Pour has way less carb than the regular GBS. Nose is Super coffee forward. I didn't even have to put it near my nose to get coffee....huge. Barrel mellows out ginger and brings our the vanilla and honey big time. This is like a coffee frap. I don't drink them but in beer form its delicious! There is no alcohol bite as I remember and its all coffee and vanilla and spice. This is a true delight. Thick mouthfeel and finish is Super balanced. I would have this over and over. Definitely a world class BA Coffee stout. Seek out.

Bottle poured into snifter, dark brown color and ginger greets the nose. No apparent carbonation and little head. Bourbon, ginger, cinnamon and chocolate notes to nose. Well balanced, bourbon, ginger and other notes on the palate. One of the best I've had; well done.